“Please join us and we'll show you,” Teagan gestured to the table as he took his seat. He passed some photos to me and I looked them over as he spoke. “The shaman's spell worked and someone in their community died on the seventh day. He was found in his bed with a nasty chest wound.”
The photograph showed a young Native American man, sprawled across his bed with his hand clasped to his chest and his face frozen in a grimace of pain. There was a stick lying on the floor beside the bed; a stick which looked very similar to the ones the shaman had used in his defense spell. I passed the pictures to Raye.
“Do you recognize him?” I asked Raye.
“That's Jay Hocktochee,” Raye frowned. “He's human,completelyhuman.”
“Human?” I lifted a brow and looked to Teagan.
“We haven't been able to get in to view the body yet,” Teagan shrugged. “So I can't confirm that. We were hoping that you would go in and take a look. We don't seem to be able to agree on any other course of action and we haven't been able to get any of our contacts to come through for us.”
“It's 3 AM,” I blinked in surprise.
“The best time to sneak into a morgue,” Councilman Sullivan grinned.
“I just told you, this man is human,” Raye growled.
“No one is doubting you,” I held up my hand. “We need to look at the body to see if it has any clues for us, not just to verify that it's human.”
“Then I'll go with you,” Raye said.
“I don't think that's a good idea,” Teagan shook his head. “It could cast a poor light on any evidence collected.”
“What does that mean?” Raye narrowed his eyes on Teagan.
“It means that someone could suggest that you tampered with the evidence,” Tiernan snapped. “You'll stay here, where you'll be held above reproach, and you'll be happy about it.”
“What about you, you're a twilight fairy,” Raye grumbled. “Won't they accuse you of tampering?”
“I'm also a Lord of the Wild Hunt,” Tiernan stared Raye down. “As such, I'm entitled to be there.”
“And we'll be sending more extinguishers with you to ensure that everything is properly collected,” Teagan offered.
“We'll take two,” I said decisively. “With Tiernan and me, that makes four. Which is more than enough people to be breaking into a morgue.”
“I thought perhaps you could simply walk right in,” Teagan lifted his brows.
“How's that?” I asked.
“You know, with that whole jedi mind trick you fairies do,” Teagan smiled.
“If there's a morgue attendant, then yeah,” I agreed, “we can render him fairy-struck. But if it's closed for the night, then we're out of luck.”
“A morgue is like Denny's,” Sullivan smirked, “it's open twenty-four hours.”
Chapter Fifteen
“A morgue is like Denny's, eh?” I grumbled as we walked up to the obviously closed Tulsa Medical Examiner's Office. According to the sign on the door, the place had closed at five. Not anywhere near to being open twenty-four-seven. “What do we do now?”
“We need to look at that body,” Extinguisher Kate, one of the two extinguishers sent with us, said. “The ME's office is overwhelmed and underfunded here. Autopsies can take longer than five months to get done. We can't wait that long.”
“Great,” I looked over the nondescript khaki cement building. It looked like a bunch of boxes laid against each other in a weird way, no doubt someone's idea of creativity. I spotted an open window near the top of one sheer wall. “How about there?”
“I can get us in there but what about them?” Tiernan nodded to the extinguishers.
“You'll have to make multiple trips, honey,” I said sympathetically.
“So be it,” he sighed. “Who's first?”
